An emergency situation in Louisiana prompted the state’s attorney general to file a lawsuit against the Biden administration’s Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and others.

Attorney General Liz Murrill is suing DHS, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and other federal agencies after a Chinese national who illegally entered the country was transported through Louisiana detention facilities, coming into contact with “hundreds of detainees and numerous non-detainees,” according to a press release from Murrill’s office.

Murrill, Governor Jeff Landry, Surgeon General Ralph Abraham, and the Department of Health, “took immediate action” after the movement of the illegal migrant, referred to as “Patient 0,” who “has a rare, aggressive, and drug-resistant form of tuberculosis, which carries high mortality rates.”

The details were shared at a press conference.

“This particular patient has a very resistant strain of tuberculosis,” Abraham said. “It is the only case in Louisiana, and … we normally do not see a case such as this except from a foreign country.”

(Video Credit: WDSU News)

“The Attorney General is suing ICE and its contractors to ensure that every potentially exposed individual is medically cleared by the State before they are permitted to leave the two facilities,” the press release stated.

The state learned of Patient 0’s health crisis on October 9 but efforts to secure a commitment from ICE to hold detainees who could potentially be infected before getting medical clearance from the Department of Health were refused by the agency.

An emergency complaint and request for a temporary restraining order were filed on Oct. 16 with the filing being under seal due to the privacy of the patient’s health status.

Fox News reported:

The Chinese citizen crossed illegally into California through the southern border in July, the lawsuit states. They were later flown with 100 other detainees to Alexandria, Louisiana. They were then bussed to another facility with more detainees.

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The patient tested for TB and was transferred to two other facilities before returning to a detention center at Richwood. Despite having symptoms of TB, they were released into the general population in August at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, the lawsuit said.

“The protection of our southern border is paramount to the security of the United States. It is neither political nor unreasonable that Louisiana has time and time again demanded that the Biden-Harris administration defend this nation,” Murrill said in a statement.

“Those not legally present should not be in the country – period. Millions of undocumented illegal aliens continue to pour across the southern border – unidentified, untracked, and untested for diseases that can threaten the lives of American citizens,” the attorney general stated. “The federal government has put the health and safety of Louisiana and American people at risk. Despite this dereliction of duty by President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Secretary Mayorkas, Louisiana officials acted immediately to protect our people.”

“We have dodged a bullet this time. We have utilized the justice system to ensure that we can continue to protect the public,” Landry told reporters on Wednesday.

ICE spokesperson Jeff Carter told Fox News Digital that the agency complies with all CDC guidelines.

“Diagnosis and treatment protocols are informed by current medical guidance, reviewed routinely, and implemented in collaboration with federal, state, and local health officials,” Carter said in a statement. “Continuous and ongoing contact tracing practices ensure early detection and appropriate action when there is a suspected communicable disease diagnosis for a noncitizen in ICE custody. ICE coordinates with federal, state, and local health officials whenever there is an anticipated release of a noncitizen to ensure both the continued treatment of the individual and ensure any public health concerns are addressed.”

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Frieda Powers

Senior Staff Writer
Frieda@bizpacreview.com

Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.

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